End of Legend of FIVE #2-Legend of FIVE #3

“Trevor…run.” That was the problem—he didn’t want to. Rebecca’s spirit energy swirled around her like a furious whirlwind. It even filled her eyes, seeping out as twin flames. Rebecca narrowed her determined stare at the danger around her and Trevor—an army clad in blood red clothes who held scythe swords. “Rebecca,” Trevor whispered. He stumbled to his feet. Deep dark bruises stained his face. Blood trickled from a corner of his mouth. One eye was swollen shut. A great pain that pulsed through his entire body from strikes he couldn’t remember and didn’t want to recall. His Zora armor had seemingly irreparable dents. “You have to run,” said Rebecca. “Go. I can protect you.” Trevor tried to lift an arm. It dangled back down, limp with weakness. “You’ll die,” Trevor gasped out. “It’s not my first time dealing with that, guapo.” “Rebecca, no…” “Stop it! Go…before…” Trevor sensed it, then saw it; all eyes bearing into him. The army grew still, honing in on the conversation. Everything and everyone stopped within the ruins of the Temple of Time. The crimson clad army stared at Trevor. They lowered their swords. Each blank look collectively bore down on the children–no. They bore down on the green eyed boy who needed to run. Rebecca looked at him too. “You already failed me,” Rebecca murmured. “What a shame.” Trevor took a step back. “I…what…?” “You let me down…” Rebecca turned around. Her emerald energy remained a relentless inferno. Trevor’s eyes widened. His jaw dropped. He finally did what Rebecca said–he ran, finally, as far as he could go. He only made it to the Temple of Time’s wide open entrance. He realize until he reached the space that it had been sealed off. “Maybe you don’t deserve to live,” Trevor heard Rebecca say. “Maybe you should just die, Trevor. You—should—pay!” Trevor turned around. The crimson clad army raised their scythes in the air. Rebecca stood at the forefront, grim and without compassion. Beside Rebecca was the infamous Ganondorf. He donned his black armor. His olive skin contrasted with a patterned mane of fiery red hair. The man’s golden eyes grinned along with his mouth. Ganondorf unleashed a laugh. It echoed and haunted Trevor. “No,” Trevor whispered. “Yes,” Rebecca shot back. “You let all of us down.” Suddenly, Jerome and Sheila were there too. Their looks were also blank. They echoed what Rebecca said:You let all of us down. Link and Navi appeared. Again, the same thought was offered:You let all of us down. You let all of us down. You let all of us down. Trevor tried to speak. Nothing came out his mouth. He dropped to his knees, pulling at his hair and covering his ears. The boy squeezed his eyes shut. He screamed and wept. When Trevor tried to apologize, nothing came out. Nothing came out at all…everyone drew closer and Trevor waited for his time to end… “Trevor, wake up!” “I’M SORRY!” Trevor sat straight up in his bed. Sunlight stung his eyes. Golden rays also warmed his face, pouring into the room through an open window. The space smelled like fresh pine and fragrant berries. Sweat drowned Trevor’s brow. His body had a soreness that panged and spread. His battle wounds still stung, having been scattered across his skin. Trevor looked to his right. A blue-eyed girl with fair skin and red hair stared at him, her gaze glossy. She tied her hair into a ponytail. “You had a bad dream again,” said Malon of Lon Lon Ranch. Her voice was quiet, almost like a whisper. Trevor looked down at his lap. Even his hands had small nicks and cuts, thin lines with crystallized blood in them. Faces flashed before Trevor’s eyes; Jerome, Sheila, and Rebecca. They were there and gone in the next moment. They were like a wind that came and never returned. “What happened?” Trevor asked Malon, genuinely curious. He looked around the room they were in. It was humble and quiet. The berry scent came from an incense lamp that burned on a small table in the corner. A small drawer sat nudged against a wall to Trevor’s left. The room’s door was a few paces away from the foot of the bed. He waited for it to creak open, for familiar laughs and faces to greet him and say “hello.” Malon seemed to wait with him, looking in the same direction. Sadness remained in her expression. “You already told me,” Malon whispered a moment later. “I…don’t want to say it again.” Trevor remembered. A few days back, he stumbled into Lon Lon Ranch. It was the only safe haven he knew in Hyrule at that point. When he collapsed on the ground, Trevor thought he’d die in Malon’s arms. He survived, of course. But his friends… Dead. Every single one of them. “No…” Trevor covered his face with his hands. His palms were wet as soon as they pressed against his eyes and cheeks. A gentle hand stroked his back. “I’m so sorry,” Malon whispered. “I couldn’t save them.” Trevor squeezed the words from his throat. “I keep forgetting…” “It’s alright. Truly. I’m so, so sorry.” This would continue for Trevor. He always remembered his friends. Nightmares constantly haunted him for months, making him wake him up in seas of his own sweat. He always saw what he lost. The names never left Trevor’s mind. He remembered them all. He could never forget. Malon always came to his side on those nights. She’d wipe his tears away, bring him back to reality, and lull him to sleep. She’d even sing a melody to him, something that mattered to her to remind Trevor that every day he lived mattered as well. He couldn’t give up hope. Life spared him somehow, giving him a chance to reshape the broken parts of himself. The two would embrace each other and this was what Trevor needed to eventually heal, at least to a point. Trevor learned one important lesson; no one could ever recover from a loss. They could only move on and keep living. Eventually, Malon didn’t have to wipe away any tears. Trevor found better times to cry; times in the waking hours of the morning, or in the middle of the day whenever he rested from work on the ranch. He didn’t want her to see him that way. Trevor wanted strength again and working at the ranch helped him best, chasing away the aches. Time passed. Trevor grew, turned thirteen, and called Lon Lon Ranch home. His parents were a distant memory, blurs in his mind’s eye. Jerome, Sheila, and Rebecca became mere memories as well. There was only Talon, Malon, and Mr. Ingo. He felt a strong loss—but gained something else at the end of it all. “You need help with the horses?” Trevor just came back from milking the cows in the barn. Malon was in the stables, tending to the fillies and mares. She stroked the snowy mane of a particularly beautiful auburn mare. Malon favored that horse, whose name was Epona. The two had a bond that was closer than anything Trevor would have expected between a person and animal. “I’m fine,” Malon said. “You don’t have to do that.” Both Malon and Trevor changed physically over the years. Trevor naturally grew taller. His brown hair sprouted and fell to his shoulders. Malon always felt it was too long and arranged times to carefully snip off the extra hair. She claimed to miss the days when it was shorter, but Trevor liked the new look. Malon slowly blossomed into a young woman. She was the same age as Trevor—maybe a little older—but at age 13 she carried a new maturity within her. Malon stood slightly taller than Trevor. Her cherubic face took on more of a keen, wiser shape. Her eyes weren’t bright-eyed with hopes and dreams; they shined with a new sense of reality, a way that being that said she could be the hope everyone needed. Trevor felt that from her and it helped him with the new life he now took on. Trevor looked around the ranch. Neither Mr. Ingo nor Talon were in sight. “Hey, I don’t see your dad helping you with the horses.” Malon’s brow furrowed as she looked over at Trevor. “He’s doing better nowadays,” she said. “You’ve seen him work! Be nice to my Papa.” “I always am.” “Try harder.” “Always.” Trevor scoffed as he walked over to the stable. “We should have Mr. Groucho do it instead, honestly. He always does work, even when he whines.” “Trevor!” Trevor didn’t want to take it back. Ingo was a harsh, angry man, especially nowadays. Trevor noticed it ever since he met him at Lon Lon Ranch three years ago, when he and his friends were still trying to find the Triforce. He looked at the children with a deeply disturbing glare and called them all free loaders. Ingo only minded himself. He didn’t even speak often with Talon nor Malon. The man always stabbed bales of hay with his pitch fork, treating the marigold straw like an enemy. He gave off a bad aura and Trevor simply didn’t like him. “Be nice to Mr. Ingo,” Malon warned. She acted with kindness to everyone, regardless of their character. “I don’t care how mean he can be.” Trevor shrugged, knowing he had to placate his friend. “I’m just kidding.” He offered to help Malon with Epona’s stirrups. Malon warmly smiled and let him. They shared a look with each other for just a moment, letting the world stand still. Then, Trevor tugged Epona along. “Come on girl,” Trevor said in a soft voice. “Let’s get you fed. To the trough we go.” “Be careful with her!” Malon’s voice called out to Trevor as if he were a hundred miles away. Trevor gave a thumbs up to Malon. “She’s your little baby. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to do that.” Trevor and Epona went along, heading to the steel troughs beside one of the smaller barns on the ranch. A pair of horses already bowed their faces into the trough lapping away at freshly drawn water. Trevor brought Epona to the water, petting her mane as she began to drink. He heard galloping in the distance. A pained grunt made Trevor jump. He turned around and found Talon on the ground. At first, he thought Malon’s father tripped over his own feet and had a mind to go over and help him up. Then he saw the horses. They looked as if they were born from the night and kept a piece of that darkness with them across all their manes. “Talon…?” Trevor murmured as he took in the sight. Three men in red rode the horses. Silver scythe swords dangling from their waists. Their eyes were empty of everything but cruelty. They kept glaring down at the owner of Lon Lon Ranch, quietly reveling in their power and dominance. Flashes of the Temple of Time bombarded Trevor’s mind. “TALON!” Trevor shouted, running in the man’s direction. One of the soldiers hopped down from his horse. He swiftly blocked Trevor’s path. The sole of his boot met Trevor’s gut, driving itself into his core. Trevor doubled over. He collapsed on the ground, favoring his stomach. When he tried to rise, another kick to the stomach forced him back down. He lost his breath for a short moment. “DADDY!” Through his narrowed eyes, Trevor saw Malon rushing to Talon. He couldn’t warn her off. One of the other soldiers grabbed Malon by the elbows. He clamped his scarred hands around both her wrists. Malon reached out to her father despite this. The final crimson soldier dismounted from his steed and seemed to survey the rest of the property. All three fiends operated in eerie silence. Malon writhed about as her captor tightened his grip. Her face showed hurt and anguish. Malon called out to her father while getting dragged away. The soldier roughly dragged Malon to Trevor. He pushed her down and she fell on her backside. Malon crawled to Trevor, trying to help him up. Trevor’s stomach was still hurt from the kick—his skin felt like a fire’s heat. Tears ran down Malon’s face. Trevor saw and flicked them away with his thumb. “Know your place, whelps.” The scarred soldier that looked around at the ranch pointed a gnarled finger at Trevor and Malon. He turned to his peers and pointed at Talon. With a nod of his head, the other men moved in on the ranch owner. They grabbed him by the arms and dragged him towards their dark steeds. “Daddy!” Malon sobbed out. “Daddy!” She tried to run to her father, but Trevor held onto her. “Please,” Trevor said. “Don’t…” Malon struggled in his arms, but Trevor didn’t relent. He knew that in a situation like this, Talon would want his daughter to be safe. The farmer wouldn’t live with himself otherwise. “Quiet, girl!” The leading soldier’s eyes flashed with something fierce as he darted his head back to Trevor and Malon. “Why are you doing this?” Trevor asked, suddenly feeling bold. “They’re simply following the deal we made, you little free loader.” Trevor’s stomach flipped at the sound of the voice. It didn’t have its usual gruff texture. The tone and expression were smoother. Blatant smug pleasure lived in the words. Trevor looked over his shoulder as he held onto Malon. He saw Ingo swagger over to the fray. His oft-thin and pursed mouth transformed into a smirk. He looked down at Trevor and Malon once he planted himself into the confrontation. Ingo looked over at the red clad soldiers. They had already begun wrapping ropes around Talon’s wrists and ankles. “I’m taking over Lon Lon Ranch,” said Ingo. “As of today, every acre of land on this fine property is mine—and no one else’s.” Malon sunk deeper into Trevor’s arms. Her body racked against his shirt. It got damp at some point. Trevor’s own eyes spilled tears as he saw Talon bound by the red clan soldiers. “Stop it,” Trevor sputtered. “Just—stop it, this is messed up.” Ingo turned on his heels and glared at Trevor. “You were always in my way. Even with the small things.” “What did you do?” “As I said—I made a deal.” Ingo walked over to Talon. The ranch owner’s jolly exterior seemed to have died. Trevor saw a deep sadness in his eyes instead—something Trevor had seen before, something he’d known about before and even learned from Talon himself. The look carried the deepest pain ever and Trevor couldn’t help but cry even more from the sight. Ingo encircled Talon like a vulture. His smirk became the strict look again—maybe even something hateful. “I labored for so many years under you,” Ingo said, his voice darker than ever. “You’re a sloth. A lazy bum!” He kicked Talon in the gut. Malon screamed. “STOP IT!” she shouted in a shrill voice. Ingo ignored Malon’s cries. “He doesn’t deserve this ranch at all! As for me? I worked my fingers to the bone. I deserved consideration. No—I just should have inherited the ranch myself. So sorry to the little gal. I’ll make sure she gets her fair share of things around here, she ain’t so bad when I think about it. It’s a shame how your child labors and cleans up after your fat bum. I’ll run the whole enterprise, mind you. I’ll take my share of rupees. I’ve done far more than I’m paid to do. I’ll take what belongs to me. All of it.” Ingo turned to Malon and Trevor. He crossed his arms as the soldiers joined him side by side. “You two can be dealt with now,” he said. “You’re under my employ.” Trevor sneered without fear. “We’ll never work for you.” “You don’t have a choice.” Ingo gestured at the red clad warriors. “Take them and whip them into shape. I want them more than ready to serve my needs. Lots of labor to do around this here ranch…they’ll do it for all of their days.” The crimson soldiers stormed towards Trevor and Malon. When they started prying the two apart, both teens writhed against the holds. Malon kicked at the air and the soldiers. Her nails dug into Trevor’s skin. He barely felt the pain from her grasp and hoped she’d hold on for a bit longer. Both of them started getting dragged across the ranch’s grass. They grew distant from each other. Trevor tried reaching out to Malon. He clawed at the ground to stall the soldiers but their own grips proved stronger than him. Trevor gritted his teeth as he kept trying to go back after Malon with a strain in his neck. He looked towards the troughs. All the horses rushed away during the commotion, leaving the trough unoccupied. Half of it was still full of water. He felt it in the container’s steel. Trevor focused. He loosened his grip on the ground. He stopped thinking about Malon for the sake of doing what it took to save her. Right now, there was only the water. It swirled in his mind—and then in real life. The trough’s contents moved subtly. Trevor had to make it that way. He made the water rise slowly before making it burst out. When it did, its volume seemed to increase. Trevor had quietly worked on his skills with this through the years. His control of water only grew better by the day. Trevor never thought he’d have to use it in a fight. Trevor didn’t believe he’d ever have to fight again. The circumstances changed. He had to fight now. He had to battle for Malon, Talon, and all of Lon Lon Ranch. Come on, he thought.Get the soldiers. Get Ingo. Get. Them. Back. The water rushed out and struck the soldier that dragged Malon across the grass. When the rush struck the soldier, it was as if a sledge hammer hit him right in the chest. The soldier flew back. Malon was free for a moment and Trevor only had one thought on his mind—Run, Malon. RUN! The water didn’t stop there. It swirled around in the air and whirled towards the soldier guarding Talon. Trevor waited to be the last one. He made the water a whirlwind. It swirled and swirled and swirled around until finally it hit the soldier who grasped him. The soldier flung back and hit his back. Ingo stumbled backwards with fright. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He couldn’t believe his own eyes at what he was seeing. “You…you…what are you?” he asked, his demand stifled by a quiver. “Who wants to know?” Trevor asked. Before Trevor could act on Ingo, however, he felt a blow from the back. A fist buried itself into his kidneys and Trevor fell over. One of the soldiers had already recovered, as did the other two red clad fiends. Their wicked eyes looked all the more furious. Trevor knew he had little chance of overcoming what came his way. He had to think fast… Trevor stood up. The attention was drawn to him. Malon and Talon had a chance to escape, if need be. Malon crawled over to her father, tending to him. She looked on at Trevor with a great fear in her eyes. She held her father close to her but couldn’t help staring at her friend. They both shared a gaze with each other. Trevor had another thought in his head as he looked at Malon: Everything will be alright. You will be alright. Hope rarely sat in Trevor’s heart. It often left him as quickly as it came. Perhaps he decided to push back against his doubts because he didn’t have a choice–others were watching. Two people needed him. All he could do was continue the fight. The crimson soldiers sought something worse than hope. Trevor turned to face them as his back recovered from the punch. He waited. They seemed sure to lunge with their swords in hand. That would be when he’d strike. One final whirlwind of water swirled around the trio of men. It split into three separate strands. Each one struck a soldier, knocking them down. The blows disarmed the foes, each weapon clattering out of its respective owner’s reach. Trevor looked over his shoulder at Malon and Talon. “Run!” Neither father nor daughter moved. Malon clung to her father, caressing him, comforting him. Her eyes gazed down with tender concern. Go, Trevor thought. Dammit, go! His insides flared with a mixture of fear and rage. When Malon kept hugging her father’s unconscious form as tightly as possible, with tears flowing down her face, the realization sunk in. Malon…no, no, no… “You have to leave,” Malon said. “No,” Trevor pleaded, putting his thoughts out into the world. “You have to come with me!” Malon shook her head. “I’m not leaving without my father.” “Malon…for God’s sake…” Malon looked towards the ranch’s exit. Her eyes didn’t carry a hint of hesitation or second thoughts. “Don’t look back, Trevor. You have time.” “MALON!” “Grab a horse and go.” “I can’t let Ingo–” “TREVOR, YOU HAVE TO GO!” Trevor would have stayed. Even if what he had just done cost him his very life, he’d have remained in Lon Lon Ranch. After all, he had nothing left to live for beyond these boundaries. Such an event would have hurt Malon and Talon. Their willingness to stay behind was the last sacrifice they made for him. Remaining there would have made all their efforts happen in vain. Trevor ran. He dashed towards the central outer stable. The crimson soldiers and Ingo barely began recovering. Trevor found a loose stallion. It lifted its front legs out of alarm, but calmed down when Trevor drew near, as if it knew the young man needed him. Trevor hopped on the stallion’s barren back. He kicked into its sides and leaned forward. The wind whipped into his face as the horse soared forth. He watched the horse follow a perfect path. First over the central stable’s wooden fence, then towards the ranch’s open welcome gate. Trevor and the horse weave through the narrow pathway leading up to the estate’s boundaries, then sped past them. Hyrule Field awaited and Trevor remembered his way around the land. He knew to avoid the city, of course. Too many tales had been told, and too many painful memories kept about the place. Trevor guided the horse away from the hurtful places. They charged out west. Trevor couldn’t remember if the crimson soldiers chased him. The ranch wasn’t even a blip–it was as if the place never existed, though Trevor knew better. He ventured deep in Hyrule Field, going to the boundaries beyond the small mountains and hills, well past the entrance to the Gerudo desert and Lake Hylia. He only felt the wind, heard the clop of the stallion’s hooves and felt the ache in his chest. The last part troubled Trevor most. Silence surrounded him. The quiet reminded him of his losses. One last spilling of tears flew from his eyes, fleeing backwards in the wake of his escape path. He hoped they would leave a trail for Malon and Talon could find. Hyrule’s paved paths went on for a time. Then, it was just an endless stretch of green, parts of the land he didn’t know. Hyrule was a new world once again, but worse—it was dark, grim, relentless in breaking him down. Trevor had no choice but to escape deeper into it. Trees surrounded him at dusk. Shadows cast themselves on the ground. Mountains dwindled into distant nubs. Just ahead, wet sands awaited Trevor. Rocks jutted out from the grainy soil. Trevor quietly guided the horse to the sands, holding it steady. Trevor and the horse made their way to the beach. The sands stretched out as far as Trevor’s eyes could see on both sides. Beyond the sands was a great sea. Its waters rose and fell. Foam sloshed about on the sea’s surface. There was a fence by the beach’s entrance. It was wooden and had three posts. Trevor halted the horse by the fence and dismounted. He padded through the beach and reached the shoreline. The tide went in and out, touching the land before receding back into the sea’s vastness. Trevor felt every rush of water, every bit of the flow. He wasn’t trying to; the element was simply part of his being, always in his blood. Trevor couldn’t explain it when he lived on Earth. He couldn’t quite explain it now. Trevor didn’t want to use his powers, or be fully engaged in the life around him. He wanted to disappear more than anything now. His eyes blurred as he stared out into the distance. Malon’s voice still echoed. She kept telling him to run, as if he were still in danger, even on this beach. The rush of water became such a grating noise. His tears kept falling as he imagined Talon wrapped in ropes with nowhere to go. He wiped them away. The sorrows remained. Trevor opened his eyes hours later. He didn’t know when he fell asleep. It was completely dark when he suddenly found himself in another moment, a moment where he was still on the beach but colder. The wind clung to him like a fierce vise. He heard his horse whinnying behind him. There wasn’t any danger…but the loneliness didn’t help him feel too safe. Trevor kept thinking about Malon and Talon. The two clung to each other as the bitter end drew near. Trevor couldn’t save them. He couldn’t do anything to stop whatever Ingo had coming for them and he hated the traitor for it…as well as himself. It caused him to sob, to cry bitterly in the dark as the guilt took him over. Suddenly, Trevor stood up. He walked back towards the fence. The horse stood quietly by its post, stoic and obedient in its stance. One of its hooves pawed at the ground as it let out a low gruff neigh. When Trevor came up to the horse, he petted its face. He kept his hand there for a while, stroking the horse’s hide repeatedly. The horse nuzzled its face against Trevor as if it already knew what was going to happen. Trevor went to the post and reached out for the knot he made. His fingers fumbled with it before it finally unwound. Trevor turned the horse back from where they both came. He took off the stirrup and saddle, tossing both to the side. The night swallowed the materials and they were both simply gone. “Go,” Trevor whispered. The horse didn’t seem to want to leave. It stood there, hooving at the ground, giving its low neighs, not keen on going off into the darkness. “GO!” This, along with a hard smack on the horse’s hind, sent the steed flying. It gave the loudest neigh of its life. Trevor was suddenly alone. He could barely make out the shape of the horse going off into the distance. Its gallops clopped against the grass of Hyrule Field until they were echoes, distant and almost imaginary. Trevor cried one more time. Then, he turned to sea. Trevor approached the waters with a numbness in his being. He was surprised how quickly he approached the tide. The rise and fall of the water—the in and out, the way it touched land only to fade back as if it didn’t know what to do past that point—was still running through him. Trevor felt it all. And then, he didn’t. He truly grew numb. The touch of everything slowly faded away. He stopped trying to control the waters of this great sea before him. He just thought it best to let the water take him, to let it drag him to whatever place could be the one he rested in forever. Trevor stretched out his arms, closed his eyes, and fell forward. The cold collapsed around him quickly. There was one last bit of control, a way to speed up the process and get it over with. He made sure the tide carried as far out into sea as he could go. The waters pulled him towards the dark horizon, bringing him along into the unknown. When it felt like he was deep enough and far enough away from everything that caused him pain, he finally released himself. Trevor didn’t care to open his eyes. Instead, the sea took him away and he sank deeper and deeper into the dark as a new kind of slumber started overtaking him.